Rupee hits more than two-year low; RBI intervenes.

 The rupee hit a more than two-year low against the greenback on Friday as domestic shares fell after an underwhelming stimulus package from the European Central Bank, forcing the Reserve Bank of India to sell dollars via state-run banks.

The rupee tumbled to 67.01 to the dollar, the lowest since Sept. 4, 2013, from its previous close of 66.6525/66.6625.

Traders said the RBI likely stepped in to support the rupee at around 66.98 per dollar, sparking a rebound. The local currency was at 66.8600/8650 per dollar as of 12:11 p.m.

The disappointment over the ECB comes amid growing worries of the impact on India and other emerging markets as the U.S. Federal Reserve gears up to raise interest rates for the first time in around a decade this month.

Foreign investors sold a net $1.7 billion in Indian shares and debt in November, the highest sales since August.

"Unless RBI intervenes in a big way, rupee will remain under pressure," said Ashtosh Raina, head of FX trading at HDFC Bank in Mumbai.

Some traders anticipate the rupee to fall to 67.50 to the dollar closer to the Fed policy meeting on Dec. 15.

The rupee fell 2.1 percent against the dollar last month, its biggest drop since August, and is down 0.3 percent so far in December.

The fall in the local currency on Friday tracked a retreat in domestic shares after the ECB disappointed markets with a smaller-than-expected stimulus measure. India`s broader NSE index fell 0.9 percent.

The limited easing measures come as Fed Chair Janet Yellen, speaking before Congress` Joint Economic Committee on Thursday, said the United States may be "close to the point at which we should be raising" rates.

Markets will eye the U.S. jobs data due later in the day for further cues on Fed rate move, although a rate hike is broadly being priced into the currency, traders said.

Weak Global Markets take a Toll.

Indian stock markets hit their lowest level in more than two weeks and finished the trading session in the red for the third consecutive day as European Central Bank's (ECB) stimulus package fell well short of markets' high expectations. The ECB had cut its deposit rate deeper into negative territory and extended its asset buying by six months. The BSE-Sensex ended the day lower by about 249 points, while the NSE-Nifty closed lower by about 82 points. S&P BSE Midcap and S&P BSE Smallcap also ended on a negative note with their representative indices closing lower by about 1.1% and 0.6% respectively. Losses were largely seen power and realty stocks

Asian markets finished broadly lower today with shares in Japan leading the region. The Nikkei 225 is down 2.18% while China's Shanghai Composite is off 1.67% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng is lower by 0.81%. European markets are lower today with shares in France off the most. The CAC 40 is down 0.27% while Germany's DAX is off 0.19% and London's FTSE 100 is lower by 0.13%. The rupee was trading weak at 66.84 against the US$ in the afternoon session.

According to a leading financial daily, HCL Technologies has opened a center in Estonia's capital city Tallinn to service some of its key customers in continental Europe. This marks the country's expansion in the Baltic region and will accommodate 100 seats by next year.

The company hopes to deliver a number of services including application development, digital and core systems transformation, legacy modernization, and infrastructure services through this center. The company chose Tallinn due to its proximity to Finland and Sweden as well as the rest of the Nordic countries allowing convenient access all across Northern Europe and Benelux.

While all of the IT majors have outperformed the Indian benchmark in the first ten months of 2015, HCL Tech has outperformed its peers. (Subscription Required) The underperformer has been TCS whose stock has barely moved, though it has managed to do better than the BSE Sensex.

According to leading financial daily, NTPC has installed a 150 kilo watt rooftop solar PV plant at its Power Management Institute. The plant is implemented under SECI Rooftop Solar PV scheme, with 30% subsidy from Ministry of New and Renewable energy. With installation of 80 kilo watt power at NETRA, 110 kW at its engineering office in Noida aggregating to 340 kW in NCR region is expected to generate 0.5 million unit electricity avoiding around 485 ton CO2 per annum.

The company is targeting rooftops of all its building and power stations for solar installations. The company has ground mounted installed capacity of 110 MW Solar PV at 8 locations including 50 MW at Rajgarh in Madhya Pradesh.

It may be noted that NTPC is the leading power generator of India. The total installed capacity of the company exceeds 45,000 MW which accounts for 25% of all India generation. The company is one of the seven Maharatnas and clocked the third highest profit amongst Public Sector Units (PSU) in FY15. Of its own capacity, 85% is coal based, operated through 18 coal power stations, 13% is gas based and the remaining 2% constitutes of solar and hydro power plants. Here is the detailed analysis of NTPC in our recent StockSelect report